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A\> 1 L tin , 



273 



THE S FRAWBERRY ROOT LOUSE (APHIS FORBESI N. S.) 



BV CI.ARIiNCE MOORES WEED. COl.UMBUS, OHIO. 



[Partial reprint from Bull. Ohio agricultural experiment station. September 1889, v. 2. no. 6. ]■>. 

 14S-150.] 



Durino- the latter part of August Mr. found, by the author just mentioned, 



S. R. Kramer, of Gahauna, Frankhn (Amer. nat.,v. 21, p. 579) to care for 



county, Ohio, brought me specimens of the eggs of the corn root louse. 



a small louse infesting the roots of straw- Mr. Kramer informs me that he first 



berry plants, which he reported to have found these lice upon his plants about 



ruined a plantation some two and a half the middle of July, when thev were very 



acres in extent. An examination of abundant. 



.A great many of the lice on the 

 crowns and roots were infested with 

 hymenopterous parasites. 



Description. 



Although Professor Forbes published 

 an accurate description and figure of 

 this strawberry root louse, he did not 

 give it a specific name, and conse- 

 quently I have proposed that it be named 



the plants upon the station grounds 

 shoAved that a large proportion of them 

 Avere also infested by the same insect ; 

 and on inquiring of prominent horticul- 

 turists recently assembled at the state 

 fair, I found that many of them were 

 only too well acquainted \yith the pest, 

 and that it is cjuite generally distributed 

 over the state. 



The insect proved to be a species of 

 Aphis, to which attention was first 

 called by Professor S. A. Forbes in the 

 Thirteenth report of the state entomolo- 

 gist of Illinois (p. 102-103). 



On the station plants the lice occur 

 both upon the roots and lowei" portions 

 of the crowns. In both situations they 

 are carefully attended by the small brown 

 ant {Lasius alieiius) which mines 

 about the roots, upon which it probabh- 

 places the lice, and carries them away 

 in its jaws upon the approach of danger 

 — treating them in fact exactly as it treats 

 tlie corn root louse {Aphis fnaid/'s) in 

 cornfields. From the discovery of the 

 deposition of the plant-lice eggs about 

 the strawberry roots recorded by Pro- in honor of its discoverer, and called 

 fessor Forbes, I surmise that the ants forbesi. The form now present on the 

 take care of them through the winter, roots is shown magnified at Fig. i, and 

 in the same way that they have been may be described as follows : 



